Exhibition: Supercycle

Type: Solo
Venue: IA&A Hillyer
Address: Washington, DC, USA
Dates: Jul 7th, 2023—Jul 30th, 2023
Link: More Info

Artist's Statement

A cryptocurrency hedge fund named Three Arrows relentlessly promoted a “crypto supercycle”: a years-long bear market that would eventually pay out individual crypto investors if they just held out a little longer.

This hype rallied their followers in times of downturn—until it didn’t, and Three Arrows Capital “vaporized a trillion dollars” and singlehandedly created a “crypto winter.” Its founders are now in hiding.

To me, the “supercycle” stands for manipulative futurism: performative optimism, with the goal of self- enrichment.

In these works, I seek some of the futures available to us. The perfect speedrun; the wreckage of the present.

Does proactivity impede “progress”? Can we ignore the downsides of new technologies, like “AI”? Will tech companies just shake out biases in the next version?

I have my hunches, as you may have surmised. I, too, wish to see the future—but with clear eyes, or at least the rheumy haze of hard-learned experience.

—Chris Combs